Knowledge Management inTheory and Practice

Introduction to Knowledge Management in theory and practice

Kimiz DalkirElsevier

Knowledge Management Course -DBA

Presented by:Ameneh ALAGHBAND RAD

Davood BAYRAMI

June. 2010

Nice Sophia Antipolis University

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The creation and diffusion of knowledge have become ever more important factors in competitiveness in today’s knowledge economy.

being viewed as a commodity or an intellectual asset, it possesses some paradoxical characteristics that are radically different from other valuable commodities.

Use of knowledge does not consume it. Transferral of knowledge does not result in losing it. Knowledge is abundant, but the ability to use it is

scarce. Much of an organization’s valuable knowledge walks

out the door at the end of the day.

What Is Knowledge Management?

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Forty years ago, nearly half of all workers in industrialized countries were making or helping to make things; today that proportion is down to 20% (Drucker, 1994; Bart, 2000).

An organization in the Knowledge Age is one that learns, remembers, and acts based on the best available information, knowledge, and know-how. companies need to learn from their past errors and not reinvent the wheel again and again.

From industrial era to knowledge age

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Some of these are more visible (e.g., patents, intellectual property), but the majority consist of know-how, know-why, experience, and expertise that tend to reside within the head of one or a few employees.

ICM content tends to be more representative of a person’s real thinking (contextual information, opinions, stories) owing to its emphasis on actionable knowledge and know-how.

ICM (Intellectual Capital Management)

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Knowledge management is the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organization’s people, technology, processes, and organizational structure in order to add value through reuse and innovation. This coordination is achieved through creating, sharing, and applying knowledge as well as through feeding the valuable lessons learned and best practices into corporate memory in order to foster continued organizational learning.

KM definition

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Facilitate a smooth transition from those retiring to their successors who are recruited to fill their positions.

Minimize loss of corporate memory due to attrition and retirement.

Identify critical resources and critical areas of knowledge so that the corporation “knows what it knows and does it well—and why.”

Build up a toolkit of methods that can be used with individuals, with groups, and with the organization to stem the potential loss of intellectual capital.

KM Objectives

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the field of KM does suffer from the “Three Blind Men and an Elephant” syndrome. There are likely more than three distinct perspectives on KM, and each leads to a different extrapolation

Multidisciplinary Nature of KM

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KM is a business activity with two primary aspects: [T]reating the knowledge component of business

activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization; and, making a direct connection between an organization’s intellectual assets—both explicit (recorded) and tacit (personal know-how)—and positive business results. (Barclay and Murray, 1997) and a different definition.

Knowledge management is a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, organization, access and use of an enterprise’s intellectual assets. (Grey, 1996)

KM From the business perspective

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Knowledge—the insights, understandings, and practical know-how that we all possess—is the fundamental resource that allows us to function intelligently. Over time, considerable knowledge is also transformed to other manifestations—such as books, technology, practices, and traditions—within organizations of all kinds and in society in general. These transformations result in cumulated [sic] expertise and, when used appropriately, increased effectiveness. Knowledge is one, if not THE, principal factor that makes personal, organizational, and societal intelligent behavior possible. (Wiig, 1993, pp. 38–39)

KM from the cognitive science or knowledge science perspective

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Knowledge management is the concept under which information is turned into actionable knowledge and made available effortlessly in a usable form to the people who can apply it.

A systematic approach to manage the use of information in order to provide a continuous flow of Knowledge to the right people at the right time enabling efficient and effective decision making in their everyday business.

A knowledge management system is a virtual repository for relevant information which is critical to tasks performed daily by organizational knowledge workers.

KM from the process/technology perspective

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Knowledge management draws upon a vast number of diverse fields such as:

Organizational science. Cognitive science. Linguistics and computational linguistics. Information technologies such as knowledge-based systems, document

and information management, electronic performance support systems, and database technologies.

Information and library science. Technical writing and journalism. Anthropology and sociology. Education and training. Storytelling and communication studies. Collaborative technologies such as Computer Supported Collaborative

Work and groupware, as well as intranets, extranets, portals, and other web technologies.

Multidisciplinary Nature of KM

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The interdisciplinary nature of KM

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The Two Major Types of Knowledge

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Concept analysis is an established technique used in the social sciences, such as philosophy and education, in order to derive a “formula” that in turn can be used to generate definitions and descriptive phrases for highly complex terms. This approach rests on three major dimensions of a given concept:

1. A list of key attributes that must be present in the definition, vision, or mission statement.

2. A list of illustrative examples.3. A list of illustrative non examples.

The Concept Analysis Technique

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Illustration of the concept analysis technique

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Ruggles and Holtshouse (1999) identified the following key attributes of knowledge management:

Generating new knowledge. Accessing valuable knowledge from outside sources. Using accessible knowledge in decision making. Embedding knowledge in processes, products, and/or

services. Representing knowledge in documents, databases, and

software. Facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives. Transferring existing knowledge into other parts of the

organization. Measuring the value of knowledge assets and/or impact of

knowledge management.

Key attributes of KM

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History of Knowledge Management

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Developmental phases in KM

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KM milestones

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Knowledge has become increasingly more valuable than the more traditional physical or tangible assets.

Intellectual capital is often made visible by the difference between the book value and the market value of an organization (often referred to as goodwill).

Intellectual assets are represented by the sum total of what employees of the organization know and what they know how to do.

Some examples of intellectual capital include:1. Competence—the skills necessary to achieve a certain (high)

level of performance.2. Capability—strategic skills necessary to integrate and apply

competencies.3. Technologies—tools and methods required to produce certain

physical results.

From Physical Assets to Knowledge Assets

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Three levels of intellectual capital

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Wiig (1993) considers knowledge management in organizations from three perspectives, each with different horizons and purposes:

1. Business Perspective—focusing on why, where, and to what extent the organization must invest in or exploit knowledge. Strategies, products and services, alliances, acquisitions, or divestments should be considered from knowledge-related points of view.

2. Management Perspective—focusing on determining, organizing, directing, facilitating, and monitoring knowledge-related practices and activities required to achieve the desired business strategies and objectives.

3. Hands-on Perspective—focusing on applying the expertise to conduct explicit knowledge-related work and tasks.

Organizational Perspectives on Knowledge Management

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The major business drivers behind today’s increased interest in and application of KM lie in four key areas:

1. Globalization of business. 2. Leaner organizations. We are doing more and we are

doing it faster, but we also need to work smarter as knowledge workers, adopting an increased pace and workload.

3. “Corporate amnesia.” We are more mobile as a workforce, which creates problems of knowledge continuity for the organization and places continuous learning demands on the knowledge worker. We no longer expect to spend our entire work life with the same organization.

4. Technological advances.

Why Is KM Important Today?

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• Helps people do their jobs and save time through better decision making and problem solving.

• Builds a sense of community bonds within the organization.• Helps people to keep up to date.• Provides challenges and opportunities to contribute.

Individuals

• Develops professional skills.• Promotes peer-to-peer mentoring.• Facilitates more effective networking and collaboration.• Develops a professional code of ethics that members can follow.• Develops a common language.

Communities

• Helps drive strategy.• Solves problems quickly.• Diffuses best practices.• Improves knowledge embedded in products and services.• Cross-fertilizes ideas and increases opportunities for innovation.• Enables organizations to stay ahead of the competition better.• Builds organizational memory.

Organizations

KM’s three-tiered view:

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THE THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF KM

Some critical KM challenges are to manage content effectively, facilitate collaboration, help knowledge workers connect and find experts, and help the organization to learn and make decisions based on complete, valid, and well interpreted data, information, and knowledge.

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Thank you!